{Eating Out & Making Bread} Brasserie Bread Melbourne

For the longest time I was a white bread gal. I didn’t want any seeds, or fancy stuff in my bread, just give me white square bread. When Dad started experimenting with a bread maker many moons ago and was making wholemeal and seed breads and I wouldn’t go near them. Now, the tables have turned! I am all for new types of bread, fruit bread, seed bread, soy and quinoa bread, etc.

I remember seeing a grape Schiacciata bread on Masterchef a few years ago, and Brasserie Bread being featured. And I couldn’t get that bread out of my head. I had to have it, I had to try and make it or go to Sydney to have it. But luckily for me, Brasserie Bread opened up a Melbourne store, and I was able to get my hands on some and finally taste it. I’m pleased to say, it was everything I imagined it to be. It is by far my favourite loaf of bread, along with their garlic bread. You really must try their garlic bread… whole cloves of garlic, poached in a sugar syrup…. and served warm… omg you will never settle for any other garlic bread ever again.

So whilst Brasserie Bread bake a lot of bread for restaurants, cafes, etc, they do supply to the public and have a cafe packed with lots of delicious treats. I tried LOADS of amazing bread at their opening, and knew I it wouldn’t be long before I was back there buying all my favourites.

Hamsley and I met Katie and Andy down there for breakfast one day, and may I suggest the sour dough pancakes with stewed berries and honeycomb cream. They are amazeballs… but as is everything else, including the croque monsieur. I HAD to leave with a schiacciata with prosciutto, rocket and tomato relish in hand for lunch though. I am not a fan of rocket, but this sanga is the bomb.

I’ve been lucky enough to attend two bread making classes as well. Both were really informative, hands on and loads of fun. I would highly recommend them to anyone. They feed and keep you hydrated too with top quality produce. In fact they only use top quality produce: flour from Kialla, chocolate from Belgium, cherries from Persia… the list goes on. Oh, and they go through a tonne of flour every day. The Sydney store goes through 2 tonnes a day!

Anyway, back to the class; you make the dough, learn the technique of kneading and working the dough, shaping the dough, and baking the dough. In the Art of Sourdough class, we learnt how to make our own sourdough starter, how to feed it, and feed it up when you want to bake with it. I’m tempted to start my own soon, but knowing me, I’ll forget to feed it, and it will get all slimy.

You leave the class with a big bag of bread, and a new found knowledge and respect for working with dough. And you can even get the most amazing spreads and pickles from the cafe on the way out. May I highly recommend you get a jar of the Jammery Pickles… seriously….the.best.pickles.ever. Omg, and their banana bread too… amazing… and their fruit loafs, and garlic loafs… ok.. just get something, anything! Everything is amazing!

They also have classes about cakes and tarts, baking with brioche (Sydney), and every Saturday morning, they run a free kids baking class; so that means you parents can enjoy breakfast in peace whilst your kids run a muck making bread!

Wah… There really is no smell better than that of freshly baked bread. I WANT TO LIVE IN THAT KITCHEN!!! And yes yes I totally remember which Masterchef episode you’re talking about. I need to learn to make my own bread too just so I can go nuts with the flavours ;p

awww so fun! Wish I had the chance to go for the bread making session too! and those sour dough pancakes look AMAZING!!!! have to try and make it down for brunch and score meself some bread soon! noms!

I’ve love to go to this classsssss Mr Bao is always complaining that I don’t make bread at home hahaha i use to be a white bread girl too but lately I really like the bread with seeds and all different types of textures hehe 😛

Thanks so much, I am so pleased you enjoyed the pickles. Beautiful photos, you are very very clever

Shellie Froidevaux

All content on this site by Shellie Froidevaux, otherwise known as Iron Chef Shellie. Her skills include food styling in her kitchen studio, lifestyle and travel photography across Australia, restaurant photography on location, building social media for her clients, recipe development with love, menu consulting for cafes and graphic design for people with discerning tastes :)